Update. We rented from LYS... But one or even two bad surprises at the Sixt counter at Calama Airport. Number one, LYS probably didn’t forward my email requesting to cross the Argentine border, which I had sent two months earlier with all the supporting documents. The woman pulls a face and makes it clear it’s going to be complicated... Great. She contacts them, there’s a lot of back-and-forth, and in short, she says it’ll be okay but we’ll have to wait. She asks us to pay the deposit by credit card—no problem, or so we thought... Our cards aren’t deferred debit cards but regular debit cards, so it’s not possible to validate the payment. We explain, I try with my business card—same issue. I offer to pay, have them debit me (still 2000 €), and she says yes, but the refund will take a long time upon return. How long? Three months!! Luckily, our 23-year-old son with us has a PayPal subscription. We sort it out after much back-and-forth with LYS so they accept 1000 € debited immediately and a refund within 48 hours upon return. In short, we lost 3 hours in Calama. I had specifically booked a 6 a.m. flight in Santiago to have time to visit the area around San Pedro de Atacama... Ugh... Anyway, for our next trip to South America, we’re considering getting an American Express just to have a "credit" card. They refunded the 1000 € about a week after returning the vehicle. But 33 € in PayPal fees.
The worst part is that in Punta Arenas, in the same country (Chile), the rental company Dachelet took the deposit with our debit card without any issues. By the way, Dachelet was great in Punta Arenas.
Carnets : Namibie en camping car, l'Est de l'Afrique du Sud, du KTP au Kaokoland en 4x4, la Norvège en hiver 2x, l'Ecosse en hiver, la Namibie avec remorque, l'Islande en camping car en juin, le tout avec 4 enfants, dans le profil https://voyageforum.com/v.f?membre=Caperam;
